Growth and Progress

From then on, Saivas began fervently training.

Like before, he was always accumulating. This gradually caused his mana flow to become more dense and rich. In fact over time he noticed he was able to see mana as well as feel it.

This was very interesting to him, but even more surprisingly, it seemed that mana came in many different colors.

The ambient energy all around him genererally took the color of whatever it was occupying, making it basically invisible unless it was being affected by magic.

However looking at himself, Saivas noticed a pale but saturated red glow.

'Well this is new' He thought

With this discovery, he decided to look over at his mother.

She seemed to let off an very dull orange glow, and around her abdomen there was small wisps of almost a gaseous dull red mist.

Thinking about it logically this made sense.

From a scientific perspective, the more energy something was letting off, the farther along the color spectrum it would appear. Starting at red, moving to Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo, then Violet before eventually becoming White light.

'If that's the case, then I suppose the color change is a sign of an abundance of energy' He pondered.

He also knew the amount of energy needed to change color was not linear, but compounding. If his theroy was correct, this was also true for mana.

'Even still, you'd think after over two years I'd have at least broken through to an orange flow' He thought dejectedly

Yes each milestone was surely far apart, but it had been almost 2 years!

'Even my mother who, to my knowledge hasn't strengthened her mana at all, has an orange flow.'

He took a moment to give this some thought.

'Maybe my magical talent is absolute crap'

Saivas didn't know how to feel about that. In his past life, nothing had ever challenged him for long.

In any other situation, it might have been exciting to think there might finally be something he's not excellent at.

'But c'mon, magic? Why couldn't my weakness have been something stupid. Like knitting? Or writing a webnovel?' Saivas scowled

'Then again, if I can see mana, other mages might be able to see it too. Maybe it's for the best my magic supply stays limited'

Slightly comforted by that fact, he calmed down a bit.

Besides, there was always the possibility the cause of his slow progress was his underdeveloped body. If that were the case, the problem would solve itself in time.

Something like that could only be said for certain when he found more information on the matter though.

'I guess only time will tell' he thought, letting out a sigh

It didn't do any good to keep dwelling on it, so he decided to get back to practicing.

.

.

.

It had been about half a year since Scarlett had become pregnant and Saivas's magic training regiment was bearing impressive results.

He still didn't have the freedom to practice anything other than wind, earth, or water magic for fear of accidentally damaging his home.

Still, practice was practice.

His mana supply still wasn't exactly impressive. This fact ended up limiting the amount of energy he could summon or envelope.

His control however, was becoming quite commendable.

With wind magic, he could now confidently condense a gust of air into a blade dense enough to leave small gashes on his play pen. He also could control the speed and temperature of the wind he summoned at the cost of the quantity controlled.

For water magic, he could transfer water from a liquid to solid state, as well as shape it to his liking. He also found it possible to manipulate other liquids, even going as far as to separate pure water from his sweat.

With stone magic, he was not only able to repair the damage his other spells caused to his play pen, but also freely shape stone almost like a liquid. There was even advancement with separating different elements from the earth he conjured.

Sure, there was still plenty of things he wanted to explore between those elements, but for the time being, he was happy with his progress.

'Not bad for a talentless mage if I do say so myself!'

The ever growing problem, however, was that in order to keep his energy up, he needed to eat. To be more specific, he needed to eat a LOT.

Magic was energy after all, and without fuel he would run out.

Thankfully, it seemed the body had a failsafe to keep him from killing himself from overexertion. If he was running low on mana, he'd always pass out before running out entirely.

As noted before, to have no mana is to not exist.

'As much as I want to see "God" again so I can give him a piece of my mind, I have no plans on dying again any time soon' he thought to himself

Passing out would allow him to metabolize food and fat into more mana while he slept. However without either, it would not only lower his reserves, but leave him feeling absolutely famished.

This wouldn't normally be a major problem, however his family barely had enough to get by as it was. Feeding a toddler who never seemed satiated just wasn't an option.

'I really need to do something about our food situation and fast.' Saivas scrunched his eyebrows

'The situation is already bad... but after this new baby arrives, I may have to stop practicing magic entirely'

He couldn't help but kick himself

'Fuck me! I've known this for almost a year now, and the thought hadn't occurred to me until now?! Wasn't I supposed to be a genius?!'

The baby was due in only a few weeks after all, how could he have missed it!

Sure he had been busy practicing magic, learning to read, and getting more information on the world he now lived in, but this was important! He couldn't find any comfort in excuses!

If he didn't come up with a solution fast, Saivas would undoubtedly be set back further than that year of training had put him ahead!

His family might even starve.

"Stupid, stupid, stupid!" he accidentally exclaimed out loud in English, earning him a confused look from his mother.

Saivas forced a childish smile until she got back to what she was doing and took a deep breath.

There was no medicine for regret, all he could do was think.

'At least I'm pretty good at that, but...' Saivas grumbled internally.

The first step to figuring out any problem is assessing what you know.

To start, he had to answer a very simple question: "Why is my family poor?"

The answer of course was farmers make income by selling crops to merchants and neighbors. Given his father's reputation, the amount of people willing to buy from Stuart was not large.

'That's not enough information though! I can't fix the problem without knowing why he's so isolated from the community!' An annoyed expression took over his face

'And of course a 3 year old asking why his father was he was dishonorably discharged from the King's Guard would raise too many red flags, dammit!'

Saivas was starting to lose count of how many times his age was proving to be a pain in the ass.

'Why couldn't I have been reincarnated as a 12 year old or something?' he thought while sitting on the floor grumbling.

The more he lived this life, the more this "God" was beginning to look like a jolly good asshole.

His mother noticed his cute pouting face and decided it was time intervene.

"Somebody is grumpy today" She teased as she walked towards his play pen

"C'mon, supper is ready Mr Cranky Pants" she said as she picked up her son, bringing him to the table.

It was hard to stay upset with the thought of food. To say Saivas was starving would not have been an exaggeration.

'Right, dinner first, maybe a nap nap, then it's back to work!' He decided

Right as Scarlett finished getting Saivas settled into his high chair, Stuart came in from his training routine as if on queue.

'What the...' Saivas looked at his father intently

Sure nothing had changed for everyone else, but this was his first time seeing his father after he learned how to see mana!

Logically, his father was a warrior, he had never seen him practice magic once. Every time there was a spell to be cast around the house, it was his mother casting it.

He had assumed this was because his father was unable to use magic. Using logic, he concluded he would have a dull red flow at best.

But seeing his father now, he nearly spat out his food.

"Blue..." he stuttered

'IT'S BRIGHT BLUE?!'